Startups

While it's not quite the free energy it sounds like at first, Aircela's technology in its current state has some practical, small-scale applications.

While much of the global conversation around artificial intelligence funding focuses on Silicon Valley mega cheques, a parallel and far more capital-efficient ecosystem is scaling quietly in China. Importance Rank:  1 read more

Neurophos is developing a massive optical systolic array clocked at 56GHz good for 470 petaFLOPS of FP4 compute As Moore's Law slows to a crawl and the amount of energy required to deliver generational performance gains grows, some chip designers are looking to alternative architectures for salvation.…

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A portable SOFC that heats up fast A team at the Institute of Science Tokyo—specifically its Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary…

The Economic Times: Bengaluru-based digital payments startup Juspay raised $50M, in a mix of primary and secondary investments, from WestBridge Capital at a $1.2B valuation  —  Founded in 2012, Bengaluru-based Juspay powers payment systems for major global brands such as Amazon, Flipkart, Google, IndiGo, and Swiggy.

Karman Industries says it has developed a cooling system that uses SpaceX rocket engine technology to rein in the environmental impact of data centers.

Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Payments Startup ZBD Raises $40M to Build Gaming Payments Rails Bitcoin payments startup ZBD raised $40M to expand blockchain payment infrastructure for games, focusing on Bitcoin rewards and integration. This post Bitcoin Payments Startup ZBD Raises $40M to Build Gaming Payments Rails first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bloomberg: Mistral's CEO says claims that Chinese AI startups lag behind the US are a “fairy tale,” and China's open-source tech is “probably stressing” US CEOs  —  Claims that Chinese technology for artificial intelligence lags the US are a “fairy tale,” Arthur Mensch, the chief executive officer of Mistral, said.

Caiwei Chen / MIT Technology Review: Q&A with Yann LeCun on his new Paris-based startup Advanced Machine Intelligence, leaving Meta, real-world applications for world models, robotics, and more  —  Yann LeCun is a Turing Award recipient and a top AI researcher, but he has long been a contrarian figure in the tech world.

Hume AI’s CEO, Alan Cowen, will join Google DeepMind along with several top engineers as part of a major licensing deal.

During a ceremony yesterday at SPIE Photonics West, Coalesenz was named as the winner of the $10,000 top prize at the 16th annual SPIE Startup Challenge. The winning pitch was for the company’s Lucerix CZ, a hand-held coagulation analyzer that returns actionable results in 5 to 10 min at the point of care. The second place, $5000 prize went to SPKL LLC for the SPKL Flow Monitor, a low-cost, portable monitor that can detect a stroke ahead of a patient arriving at a hospital, allowing faster treatment. Seaborough was announced as the third place, $2500 prize winner for the EuroLED, a nano-engineered phosphors delivering brighter light, lower carbon, and lower cost. (From left) 2026 SPIE President Julie Bentley, the Coalesenz...

Tim Fernholz / Bloomberg: How Google, Huawei, Microsoft, and Nvidia, as well as startups and university research teams, spent millions of dollars to develop AI weather forecasting tools  —  Google, Microsoft and Nvidia are among the names vying to make forecasts more accurate for longer.

Meir Orbach / CTech: Israeli startup Claroty, which makes security tech for hospitals, manufacturing, and industrial systems, raised a $150M Series F, sources say at a $3B valuation  —  Israeli cybersecurity firm cites rising attacks on hospitals and industrial systems.  —  Israeli cybersecurity unicorn Claroty …

Kyu-Seok Shim / Reuters: South Korea enacts the AI Basic Act, which it says includes the world's first comprehensive set of laws regulating AI, as startups warn of compliance burdens  —  South Korea introduced on Thursday what it says is the world's first comprehensive set of laws regulating artificial intelligence …

In 2025, Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy published eight reports, including The Entrepreneur’s AI Playbook The post Dubai supports 1,690 digital startups in 2025 as tech ecosystem accelerates appeared first on Gulf Business.

As Europe races into the AI era, its policymakers are laying new pipes for the continent’s digital future. The European Commission’s proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) promises to rewire the EU’s telecom landscape, with big implications for artificial intelligence infrastructure, connectivity equity, and the startup ecosystem.  Exposed as part of a broader push to make Europe “fit for the Digital Age,” the draft law aims to modernize how networks are built and regulated, from 5G towers in rural villages to fiber links between data centers.  I have to say it’s a bold vision of a more connected, innovative Europe, but…This story continues at The Next Web

Myles Miller / Bloomberg: Marketing tech startup Applecart raised $100M in a minority funding round led by Blackstone's growth equity business, a source says at a ~$700M valuation  —  Applecart, a marketing technology startup, raised $100 million in a minority funding round led by Blackstone Inc.'s growth equity business.

Plans to swing SkyHammer silicon into UALink switches later this year AI networking startup Upscale AI on Wednesday announced it has raised $200 million in Series A funding to challenge Nvidia's dominance of switches for rack-scale AI systems, putting it in competition with the likes of Cisco and AMD.…

French small-launch startup Latitude is pushing toward a maiden flight of its Zephyr rocket within… The post French startup Latitude targets 2026 for first launch while following market-driven approach appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: Neynar, a startup focused on decentralized social media infrastructure, is acquiring Ethereum-based social media project Farcaster from R&D firm Merkle  —  Partner offers  —  Quick Take  — Decentralized social media infrastructure firm Neynar is acquiring Farcaster …

Bloomberg: Sources: AI chip startup SambaNova is seeking to raise $300M to $500M after talks to sell the company to Intel for about $1.6B, including debt, stalled  —  Artificial intelligence startup SambaNova Systems Inc. is considering raising up to $500 million after talks to sell to Intel Corp. stalled …

NexPhone promises to unify three operating systems into one device.

Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Ukrainian-founded language learning marketplace Preply raised a $150M Series D led by WestCap at a $1.2B valuation; the startup has a 150-person office in Kyiv  —  Language learning marketplace Preply is now valued at $1.2 billion after raising a $150 million Series D round that marks …

Bloomberg: Chinese AI startup Zhipu says it is limiting GLM Coding Plan access after strong demand, taking only 20% of its current daily new subscriptions from January 23  —  China's Zhipu is limiting access to its coding assistant after strong demand for a new AI model siphoned off computing resources.

Globes: Israeli startup DataRails, which offers financial planning and analytics tools, raised a $70M Series C led by One Peak at an estimated $600M to $700M valuation  —  Datarails has developed a software for Excel users, which it claims, transforms the CFO's office.

BitGo is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto to Sioux Falls, S.D.

Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg: Drone delivery startup Zipline raised $600M+, boosting its valuation to $7.6B, and says it has now completed 2M+ commercial deliveries of 20M different items  —  Zipline, a drone delivery and logistics startup, has raised more than $600 million in new funding, boosting its valuation to $7.6 billion …

The company, Oklo, plans to use the fuel at a 1.2-gigawatt plant in Ohio that's due as early as 2030. The post Meta Will Buy Startup’s Nuclear Fuel in Unusual Deal to Power AI Data Centers appeared first on SingularityHub.

Coordination spreads responsibility, yet poorly executed, it compounds risk.

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Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal: Sources: AI inference startup Baseten raised $300M led by IVP and CapitalG at a $5B valuation, more than doubling its valuation; Nvidia invested $150M  —  The move follows other investments from the chip giant to improve the delivery of artificial-intelligence services to customers

In this edition of STAT's Health Tech: Jesse Ehrenfeld, former AMA president, on moving to a health AI startup, and other health tech news.

Aditya Soni / Reuters: Legal AI startup Ivo, which aims to reduce hallucinations by breaking legal reviews into 400+ tasks, raised a $55M Series B, a source says at a $355M valuation  —  Artificial intelligence startup Ivo raised $55 million in a funding round, led by existing investor Blackbird …

Ben Bergman / Business Insider: Vibe coding startup Emergent raised a $70M Series B led by Khosla and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, after a $23M Series A in September 2025, and claims 5M+ users  —  - Emergent is an AI software creation platform that helps anyone build web and mobile applications.

In an interview with BioPharma Dive, the veteran biotech CEO said there remains a “significant opportunity” for young companies in a market dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.

The rental company, backed by Grab, claims to offers 50% cheaper rides than Uber through tele-operated rentals in Las Vegas. read more

The prenatal care industry now has access to something genuinely new. BioticsAI, a US-founded company, secured FDA 510(k)

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: French accounting software startup Pennylane raised $204M led by TCV, a source says at a ~$4.25B valuation, with participation from Blackstone, DST, and others  —  Pennylane, a French startup that sells accounting software, has raised €175 million ($204 million) in a funding round led by growth equity investor TCV.

In 2026, defense-tech startups will have to prove to investors they can turn funding into actual production at scale, one analyst said.

Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is the world’s largest venture capital firm, managing assets worth about $63 billion as of last year. Co-founded by Marc Andreessen, creator of the Netscape web browser, and Ben Horowitz, the firm is famous for making early bets on startups that have since become superstars, including OpenAI, Meta, Airbnb and Roblox. While many venture capital firms were fixated on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, a16z shifted its gaze elsewhere, promoting a thesis it calls "American Dynamism." The concept refers to investing in sectors that strengthen the national interest and competitiveness of the United States, such as defense, energy, manufacturing and space. The firm’s emphasis on American dynamism stems from the realization that global supply chains fractured during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, a16z saw the need to restructure supply networks around the U.S., in alignment with the "America First" doctrine loudly advocated by President Donald

Anjali Jain / Inc42 Media: Pune-based supply chain robotics startup Unbox Robotics raised a $28M Series B in a mix of primary and secondary capital, after raising $15M in earlier rounds  —  SUMMARY  —  The round was a mix of primary and secondary capital, with employees getting liquidity through the ESOP programme

Here's what young companies can borrow from Fortune 500 discipline, and what to leave behind to stay innovative.

More and bigger funding rounds for AI chips and AI for making chips; 75 companies raise $3 billion. The post Startup Funding: Q4 2025 appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Greenland’s location near the North Pole makes it a critical site for laser based satellite communications, expert says.

Weebit’s ReRAM shows higher speed, density, and reliability than flash memory, gaining backing from TI and industry-wide attention.

OpenAI just rehired former employees who previously left the company to work at Thinking Machines Lab.

Neurotech company targets non-surgical methods for connecting humans with ‘advanced AI’ and other technologies.   Sam Altman’s latest venture, brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs, has emerged from stealth, backed by seed funding from OpenAI. The company revealed it is exploring non-surgical approaches to the challenge of brain-computer communication – ultimately seeking to create safe, “high […] The post Sam Altman’s BCI startup Merge Labs launches with funding from OpenAI appeared first on Longevity.Technology.

Owner reverse-engineered his ride, revealing authentication was never properly individualized An Estonian e-scooter owner locked out of his own ride after the manufacturer went bust did what any determined engineer might do. He reverse-engineered it, and claims he ended up discovering the master key that unlocks every scooter the company ever sold.…

A Bengaluru-based aerospace company EtherealX is preparing to fire up its rocket engines this summer, armed with fresh

Chances are, when you hear “ammonia,” you picture massive steel reactors belching away in old-school petrochemical plants. Now imagine shrinking…

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News: Total global VC funding to fintech startups totaled $51.8B in 2025, up 27% YoY and above pre-pandemic totals, but much lower than 2021's peak of $141.6B  —  Global venture funding to fintech startups climbed in 2025 to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals, Crunchbase data shows.

Plus: Rockefeller Foundation launches Food Is Medicine fund. The post AgriFood Signals: SAP & Syngenta partner, BASF buys biocontrol startup, Microsoft’s record deal with Indigo appeared first on AgFunderNews.

The lawsuit names San Francisco-based JustAnswer, which operates Pearl.com along with a network of related domains, including AskALawyer.com and AskWomensHealth.com. According to federal investigators, what appeared to be a low-cost trial for professional advice often morphed into an unapproved plan charging up to $79 per month.Read Entire Article

Merge Labs has emerged from stealth with $252 million in funding from OpenAI and others. It aims to use ultrasound to read from and write to the brain.

When inventors move to a U.S. county, the number of successful startups, especially those valued at $1 billion or more, goes up, as inventors become founders, employees and magnets for venture capital investment. But the effects are strongest in places already primed for innovation, according to new research from Cornell SC College of Business.

Ike Swetlitz / Bloomberg: Sam Altman's brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs raised $252M from OpenAI, Bain Capital, and others  —  Merge Labs, a company co-founded by AI billionaire Sam Altman that is building devices to connect human brains to computers, raised $252 million.

Krystal Hu / Reuters: AI video startup Higgsfield raised an $80M Series A extension from Accel and others at a $1.3B+ valuation, and reports a $200M annualized revenue run rate  —  AI video generation startup Higgsfield raised $80 million in new funding, valuing the company at over $1.3 billion, it told Reuters …

Atomic-6's innovative Space Armor tiles will finally be put to the test later this year.

While the six-year timeline for its first missions may sound improbable, GRU Space has already secured seed funding from Y Combinator and is slated to enter the accelerator's three-month program this year. The company's name – short for Galactic Resource Utilization – reflects its broader goal: to harness local materials...Read Entire Article

The Series A round was led by Castle Island Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan warns Ro Khanna's billionaire tax could drive startups from California. read more

Software startup Temporal Technologies is in advanced talks ​to raise fresh capital ‌at a $5 billion valuation, double what it was valued at in a financing three ‌months ago, according to a report. read more

An Indian startup is entering the satellite servicing market with plans to develop low-cost spacecraft to extend the lives of satellites. The post Indian startup Aule Space enters satellite servicing market appeared first on SpaceNews.

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Bengaluru-based edtech startup Emversity raised a $30M Series A led by Premji Invest, sources say at a $120M post-money valuation, up from $60M in April 2025  —  As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce-training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles …

Buying an existing business and stepping into its leadership has become a popular way to get a foot in the door to ownership.

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Belgian cybersecurity startup Aikido Security has closed a $60 million Series B funding round at a $1 billion valuation, marking a rare unicorn milestone for a European security company and highlighting the accelerating interest in developer-centric security platforms. The round was led by DST Global, a tech-oriented investment firm with a track record of backing major technology companies, and included participation from PSG Equity, Notion Capital, and Singular. Founded in 2022, Aikido has reached a billion-dollar valuation in just three years, a pace few cybersecurity firms attain, and according to company sources, the fastest in Europe. The new capital will…This story continues at The Next Web

Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters: Belgian startup Aikido Security, which offers automated security guardrails for developers, raised $60M led by DST Global at a $1B valuation  —  Belgium's Aikido Security has raised $60 million from investors led by tech-focused private equity firm DST Global at a valuation of $1 billion …

The executives of Percepta AI, a startup in the artificial intelligence space, that was accused by Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) of stealing confidential information and attempting to poach top talent have labeled these claims as an effort to "stifle competition," in a Monday filing. read more

OpenAI acquired the health-care technology startup Torch on Monday, days after the company unveiled ChatGPT Health. read more

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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 14, 2026 Diffraqtion, a space startup spun out of MIT and the University of Maryland, has closed a pre-seed funding round to advance satellite constellations and telescope systems powered by a novel quantum camera. The round is led by QDNL Participations, with participation from milemark+ capital, Aether VC, ADIN, Offline Ventures, and a non-dilutive DARPA SBIR Direct-to-Phase 2 contract that supports sp

A new study reveals how entrepreneurs can win support for their ideas from audiences who never speak up. The research shows that the way entrepreneurs engage with a few vocal participants in online discussions can crucially shape how the larger, silent audience perceives and supports their ideas.

The Information: Sources: AI chipmaker Cerebras is in talks to raise ~$1B, valuing the startup at $22B before the new investment, up from an $8.1B valuation in September 2025  —  AI chip startup Cerebras Systems is in talks to raise about $1 billion, valuing the company at $22 billion before the new investment …

Ben Weiss / Fortune: Polygon buys crypto startups Coinme and Sequence for a total of $250M+, as it seeks to bolster its stablecoin and fintech infrastructure and compete with Stripe  —  Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron (left) and Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal.COURTESY OF POLYGON LABS

Dina Bass / Bloomberg: Sources: AI chip startup Etched raised $500M led by Stripes at a $5B valuation, bringing its total funding to almost $1B  —  AI chip startup Etched raised about $500 million in a new funding round, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an effort to compete with Nvidia Corp …

Step 1: Ask for deposit. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Build Moon hotel empire Everest has been turned into a run-of-the-mill tourist attraction. Space tourism is over now that any celebrity can blast off into orbit. Next up: a hotel on the Moon, now taking reservations for only about six years from now, if you're willing to make a small deposit.…

An upcoming space tech startup is looking to build the first hotel on the lunar surface.

Product-market fit proves people want your product, but only a strong go-to-market strategy turns that demand into consistent, scalable growth.

A new study published in Business Strategy and the Environment, from the University of Eastern Finland offers a fresh perspective on how circular economy startups succeed in developing their business in markets where consumer demand for sustainable products is equivocal, institutional support is lacking and dominant players are slow to adapt.

Meir Orbach / CTech: CrowdStrike acquires Israel-based browser security startup Seraphic, a source says for around $400M; Seraphic has raised around $37M in total  —  Founded in 2020, the Israeli company focuses on embedding security directly into the browser.  —  CrowdStrike is acquiring Israeli startup Seraphic Security.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: A profile of Eric Migicovsky's Core Devices, a five-person company that he says is “not a startup” and aims to be “sustainable”, as it builds new Pebble devices  —  Pebble's founder, Eric Migicovsky, is doing things differently with his reboot of the Pebble smartwatch brand and an AI ring.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is facing growing backlash over its preliminary approval process for operators of over-the-counter trading platforms for security tokens, as Lucentblock, a startup that operates a real estate fractional investment platform, has strongly objected after being placed at risk of exclusion, industry officials said Tuesday. The startup said it has been “driven to the edge of shutdown by entrenched interests,” while critics warn that sidelining startups that have built expertise over the years under government-backed nurturing policies would directly contradict the Lee Jae Myung administration’s commitment to promoting innovative sectors. With bipartisan-backed legislation on security token offerings (STOs) advancing in the National Assembly, the market is poised for a formal launch this year. STOs integrate fractional investments — shared ownership and profit rights in real-world assets such as real estate and art — into the formal financial system

Mike Solana / Pirate Wires: A late-2025 amendment to California's wealth tax proposal treats founder control as ownership, a move that could end founder-controlled startups in the state  —  it's not a tax on “wealth,” the union's ballot prop is designed to target the very concept of founder-controlled companies …

Bolt Graphics is betting on RISC-V and CUDA compatibility to challenge Nvidia and AMD with a radically different GPU design focused on AI and rendering.

Scientists at Basecamp Research say they have used “evolutionary AI models,” developed with help from chipmaker Nvidia, to create a powerful new gene editing tool that can insert a new healthy gene in front of ...

This latest funding brings Torq's total raised capital to $332 million, and it has plans to hire an additional 200 employees in 2026. The post Israeli Cybersecurity Startup Torq Gets $140M Funding to Hit $1.2B Valuation appeared first on TechRepublic.

Run by Roger Perlmutter and backed by more than $1 billion in private funding, Eikon will use the IPO proceeds to advance a group of experimental cancer drugs. 

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Here are the five key indicators that your idea, timing, team and plan are aligned for success, based on decades of real-world entrepreneurial experience.

Navigating a market downturn tests every assumption your startup is built on — here's what founders need to know to survive and emerge stronger.

Emily Mason / Bloomberg: Source: OnePay, the fintech firm behind Walmart's “super app”, recently bought back shares from employees at a price that values the startup at more than $4B  —  OnePay, the Walmart Inc.-backed fintech firm behind the “super app” that the world's largest retailer is incorporating for customers …

Meta has forged agreements with three nuclear power providers in an effort to secure the vast amount of electricity it needs to power AI data centers. The agreements with TerraPower (which is backed by Bill Gates), Oklo (backed by Sam Altman), and Vistra are expected to deliver 6.6 gigawatts of energy for Meta's projects by 2035 - which is enough energy to power Ireland. These AI projects include Prometheus, the first of several supercluster computing systems, which is expected to come online in New Albany, Ohio, sometime this year. Meta is funding the construction of new nuclear reactors as part of the agreements, the first of which may co … Read the full story at The Verge.

For the September 2025 quarter, xAI reported a net loss of $1.46 billion, up from $1 billion earlier in the year. The company burned through $7.8 billion in cash during the first nine months alone, driven by heavy spending on data centers, Nvidia GPU purchases, and compensation tied to AI...Read Entire Article